Good morning to everyone. I went for a swim this morning at my local pool and one of the swimming instructors made a valid point. she said " who decided that stick thin was beautiful and that a size zero was pretty?" It's so true, you look around on TV and in magazines and you see all these stick thin women who you can tell that they aren't naturally thin and probably are eating nothing to stay that thin. a size 12 is considered puls size who came up with that a size 12 was plus size? It is a bit crazy and when Jessica Simpson put on weight and went from a size 2 to an 8 they called her fat OMG.. and from what I heard she has lost weight after that was said

I'm on my weight loss journey and I will get to a healthy weight for my health. But I've learned that I have to be happy with the way I want to look and feel comfortable with not what others say. That goes both ways. A friend of mine was over 200 pounds and was just maybe 5 ft 1 and now she is at 140 and wants to lose 15 more pounds and people are telling her that she shouldn't lose anymore weight. I told her that she has to feel good and be happy with herself and please herself and not others. I've seen so many people lose weight for their husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends when you have to lose weight for yourself and be happy with yourself.

Great point.

ya know, I really don't think this is necessarily true. The stick thin celebs get raked over pretty good in tabloids. I guess there is a thin line between fat, too skinny and beautiful in some eyes, but it seems to me that the slimmer, physically fit ones are the ones hailed as beautiful.

I believe it started when Twiggy was a model back in the 60s.

I definitely agree.
It's said that stick thin is what makes designer clothes hang right - is it too simple to suggest designers design other kinds of clothes?
Some models look ok clothes but as soon as they take them off, they're at the stick thin size and suddenly everyone wants to look that way. Well ok, not us everyone but lots do.

I have to bite my tongue at some 'after' photos (not referring to anyone here, I've spent 37 years looking at befores and afters) when some people's arms and legs just look emaciated to me. It is so easy to get hooked on seeing the scale numbers go down, it takes courage to recognize when enough is enough.

willow yes they sometimes rake them over but then the next day they are talking about how someone is fat at a size 8!

Ail I agree weight loss can become an addicition and a BIG problem and we just have to be careful when we are losing weight and stay focus. But I can understand when you lose weight and you are feeling good and getting compliments and you don't want to go back to your old self so you continue to lose weight. You definitely need balance.

Being slender as opposed to voluptuous has been in & out of style over the centuries, but many authorities point out the 1920s & the age of the flapper as the turning point. The silhouette was small-breasted, hipless, with a drop waist & legs visible from the knees downward. When you think that the flapper's mother was probably a Gibson Girl, you can see what a radical change that was.

When athleticism for women came into style, and when it became a mark of class distinction to have the leisure time for sporting past times & exercise, that's when being thin became fashionable. Fashion is usually aspirational & looking upwards at the well-off. As soon as food became really cheap & plentiful, & poor people could be fat, & being thin was seen as difficult, time-consuming & a sign of leisure & athleticism & self-discipline, then being thin was suddenly a class marker.

It's also interesting to me that thinness came into fashion along with the further development & proliferation of the mass media. Sudenly everyday people were exposed to a lot more images of the ideal woman, usually selling them something.

I think most people aren't looking for a stick thin person when they're picking their partner. Being fit, yet not model skinny, generally signals that a person is healthy and more desireable, imo.

I think beautiful people come in all shapes and sizes, and I think people's preferences come in all shapes and sizes too. Don't worry too much about the image that the media sells to people... what's important is that you feel healthy, you're living a lifestyle that is good for your body, and you feel good about yourself both inside and out.

Most men don't want stick thin women- but we are told they do. I have done a lot of looking on the subject and the truth is, most men want a girl that has a little meat on her bones. They usually don't want to be with a girl that is so thin, she looks like a pubescent boy. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have a cousin who loves really thin girls- if they aren't a size 2 or lower, then he's just not into them. I also have a friend who isn't at all attracted to thin girls, and prefers the "Roman goddess" shape of a woman with a little extra poundage. I think peoples' attractions are varied for a reason- because people vary over a wide spectrum. Not everyone is going to look like hollywood actresses- but we're not meant to. Just being the best person, inside and out, that you can be is truly the best thing you can do.

Yeah, I agree, I've never thought that the body types you see in the fashion mags are really what our society sees as "beautiful", I just figured it was the body type most suited for selling clothes. Less flesh to distract from the designs or something. I don't think most guys actually want to end up with someone who looks like that, it's way too masculine and unhealthy-looking. When I think of "beautiful" in our culture, I think of someone like Angelina Jolie, who's thin for sure, but in a curvy athletic sort of way, right?

I don't think thin is necessarily bad or unattractive. There are all kinds of natural body types. I know my niece is tall and stick thin, and she is no dieter. I think generally when that body type occurs naturally, it looks different than when someone is keeping themselves under their natural weight. I think it's easy to call stick-thin unattractive, and not realize your criticizing people who naturally have that body type.

But I do fully agree that I hate that being very thin is an ideal that is expected of everyone. I get sooooo tired of size 6 or 8 actresses being hailed as plus-size role models!

I also don't care for substituting extreme fitness as an ideal in place of just skinny. Muscle definition is more a sign of low body fat than fitness, and not any more of a reasonable goal for many girls & women.

Then again, judging by what I see on the street, muffin top is the new ideal.

In the end, I think many of us can dissociate from crazy media ideals and develop much better opinions of our bodies, but I think it's tragic what pressures teenage girls are under.

I agree Julie I just can't believe that they call a size 8 a plus size model I'm like OMG. Definitely not good for teenagers out there who want to look like the models in the mags.. I do agree that some people are just stick thin like my sister and she isn't trying to look thin she's actually trying to gain weigh-can't help but hate her - just joking

Also another note just because you are thin doesn't mean you are healthy, that's a misconception. I've met a few thin people who were out of shape and couldn't do an easy work out routine.

Another reason models must be so thin is that the camera really does "add" weight. Also, we don't notice certain areas of a body in motion the way we do a still life photo.